Regarding the criminalisation of nonviolent protest in Quebec

22 May 2012

World without Wars and Violence denounces moves taken by the Quebec Government to make nonviolent protest illegal. Quebec Government Act 78 violates the fundamental rights of citizens to non-violent dissent and we are extremely concerned by the restrictions placed on the right of association and the right to demonstrate. As ordinary citizens we demand the right to live in peace and freedom, the right to assert that human consciousness is free. We do not live free lives when we are being threatened.

We denounce the repressive and dehumanising nature of the Act in its attempt to resolve the student conflict in Quebec and demand its immediate repeal. We criticise the criminalisation of debate which infringes the freedom of association and the right to non-violent dissent by students and all citizens of Quebec.

World without Wars denounces the policy of the Government of Quebec with regard to human rights in post-secondary education. Indeed, the increase in tuition fees of 82% imposed on new generations will inevitably open the door to systematic discrimination between young affluent and underprivileged youth, and to the social exclusion of several thousand young people. We unreservedly support non-violent dissent by any student and citizen of Quebec who wants to open and humanise the future for all generations, and not only for a minority.

World without Wars draws attention to the Government of Quebec's commitment to nonviolence, being the only North American legislation that, on December 2, 2009, under Act 199, recognised the International Day of Nonviolence on October 2nd. Let us remember that October 2nd is the anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence Movement and a pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence.

World without Wars invites all citizens to wear and display an orange square in support of the universal right to nonviolent dissent and the right to humanise the Earth.

"To humanise" means to recognize freedom and set it in a direction of transforming the world. "Dehumanisation" is the process by which human freedom is taken away.